Gearbox Carefully Defends 'Brothers In Arms' Extreme Violence

War is hell, they say, and the increasing visual fidelity of video games means developers are able to render that hell more and more realistically every year.

Ubisoft recently distributed a video -- titled "Brutality of War" -- promoting "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" by highlighting the violence and gore of Gearbox Studio's latest shooter. It actually made me look away from the television.

Of course, it had no context. It was just gore for the sake of gore rolled into a 30-second video spot. But after speaking to Epic Games about how they determined the role of gore in "Gears of War" in a fantasy environment, I wondered how Gearbox handles its place in something portraying reality.

"I can't say that we ever consciously said 'well, what role does the gore play in the game?'" said "Brothers in Arms" game director Jeramy Cooke over the phone last week. "We knew it was a risk. On the one hand, we don't want to make it just over-the-top and totally ridiculous and just gore for its own sake. We never had that goal to 'well, let's make the most awesomest gore ever.' We had really set out to make it sort of surprising and powerful because you can't talk about war and not have it."

"I fully expect there's gonna be other people that are like 'I can't believe how horrible this is.'"

Cooke told me other war shooters put a layer of "varnish" on their violence. He argued that reducing the realism would be "sugar coating" the experiences of those who actually fought real wars. That said, even war veterans that Gearbox consulted for the development of the "Brothers in Arms" series have had varying responses to the realism of the violence.

"We met with a lot of these guys [veterans] and talked about our plans for the games," he said, "and it can seem a little cheap to be selling the violence and the horror they had to live through. But at the same time, they have a sort of weird relationship with that stuff. Part of their experience is learning to cope and live with that, and sometimes that means laughing at that, or ignoring it or sometimes it means they're horrified by it. There's a whole range of emotions you go through when you get hit by that stuff and when you see it."

Cooke's own grandfather, who has since passed, didn't approve of the games he was working on. His grandfather was with the British military on D-Day and couldn't understand the concept of selling a game about war. Cooke expects a wide range of reactions from players when they actually sit down with the game.

"I fully expect there are going to be some people that play this game and are just like 'Yeah! Explosions and gore!'" he said. "And I fully expect there's gonna be other people that are like 'I can't believe how horrible this is.' And still probably more people that are like 'Wow, I can't believe that they would show that kind of violence and try and make money off of it.' It's hard to have an answer for that; everyone is going to take it slightly differently, I expect. But hopefully that's what good art does -- it allows you to look at it in a bunch of different lights, you know?"

The "Brutality of War" video was the reason I wanted to talk with Cooke in the first place about the role of violence in "Brothers in Arms." He argued the video isn't reflective of what the game's about, and pointed towards the marketing department looking for specific features to highlight about the game. In that respect, he's probably right. Every other time I've seen the game, it's never been about one headshot after the other.

"I hope they can step back from it for a minute and go 'Why did I find that cool? Was that really a gross thing or was that something I should like?'"

I asked Cooke whether there's a line that will eventually be crossed by games. Will there be a day when realism becomes too much, and developers will need to start holding back? The question sprang from my own response to "Grand Theft Auto IV" earlier this year.

"The more real it becomes, I think, in terms of graphical representation and physical representation, the more people are going to start to ask questions about 'Is this right? How should I feel about this?' I hope people will have that to some extent with our game. I hope they can step back from it for a minute and go 'Why did I find that cool? Was that really a gross thing or was that something I should like?'"

From what you've seen, readers, what do you make of the violence in "Brothers in Arms"? You can see the context for yourself now; the game is on sale today.

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